


University Sux (Zim x Reader)

by EssenceOfMoonbeam



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Soulmates, University, imprint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 02:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20575277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssenceOfMoonbeam/pseuds/EssenceOfMoonbeam
Summary: Zim has an internal battle over whether soulmates are something the Irken Armada has wrongfully taken away from his kind, and a human begins to show him that is indeed true.





	University Sux (Zim x Reader)

The electrical zapping and sound of metal welding filled the lab as Zim’s jaw locked in concentration. Faint high-pitched laughter from Gir could be heard just a few cubicles down, and Zim let out a quiet sigh.  
A sudden crawling sensation tickled Zim.  
He looked down at his arm, pulling back his glove to see his soulmate at it again. The black ink tickled Zim a bit as he stopped what he was doing to watch her newest art piece unfold.  
He often forgot that he had one, Irken kind had bested genetic modification. It would often skip his mind that he was one of the many few ‘defective’ Irken.  
The simple word left a soured taste in his mouth.  
He often wished he could rip the skin of his arms, tear away at the flesh to rid himself of what separated him from the rest of the Irken Armada. But at the same time, he was curious. He wished to know what other defective Irken, like him, could feel. He yearned to know who she was- it was the work of his defectivity, he reasoned.  
He sneered at the growing markings on his arm, yanking his glove back down. No Irken had time for such silly games- art. Bah!  
He resumed using his PAK, activating his welding tool from the tip of an arachnid-esk leg whilst providing it an electrical pulse with another. He didn’t know what he was making, only that it was absentminded work to stop thinking about his failure to his kin- and the annoying tingling of his arm.  
He never responded back to her, it was just the way it was. 

The dreaded hour came, humans and their inferior teachings- an Invader would learn all of this content and their ‘university’ teachings as a smeet. Zim rolled his eyes and gave a mumbled ‘Noted, Computer.’ At the reminder the sarcastic AI granted him, “It’s time for Uni, Asshole.”  
He had no idea how the computer developed such a vulgar and disgusting mouth like these humans over the years.  
Dawning his disguise, which he didn’t see fit to upgrade over the years except for disrobing from his Invader Uniform in favor of a comfortable black cotton shirt that the Gaz had given him to “bug Dib” that read: ‘Alien Fucker’ on it. It did bug the Dib-Filth, and he had initially revolted at the sight of it- much to Zim’s amusement. As well as a dark magenta leather jacket that Zim favored for its “water-repelling properties”. He still wore the same footed black tights and simple pointed boots with large buckles. Courtesy of the Gaz yet again, who ordered the wrong shoe-size on the account of “It was in Mandarin.”  
Zim was confused, he knew almost fourteen of the Human’s languages within the first year of being here. But he scoffed, saying he shouldn’t be surprised since humanity can only retain so much in their snot-ridden brains.  
He brushed through the messy Pompadour, and blinked a few times- he wasn’t quite used to his contacts since they hadn’t been used over the weekend.  
Finally walking through the lab and going up through the elevator, he became more and more aware of the long-lasting scream of Gir.  
Louder and louder as he reached the main floor of the house.  
“Gir! What are you doing?” Zim asked with a hint of exhaustion, it never changed. The small robotic bundle of joy simply smiled and stated “Screaming on the floor!”  
He didn’t ask any questions and informed the SIR unit he was going to attend University, and he would be back in 9.5 hours.  
Gir per usual, cried loudly before saying ‘Okay!’ And turning on the television.  
Zim glared and sighed, before letting out a small chuckle and an eye roll.  
His boots clacked against the tile and he opened the front door with a squeak, shutting it behind him as he went. 

The Irken gave a wary half-lidded glance over to Dib-Worm, as the human walked to the ‘U-knee’ on the opposite side of the road on the sidewalk- glaring at him. In his company was Gaz, on her Game Slave 6XL. Something the Dib-Filth needed to buy her after he’d tampered with Zim’s wonderful plan to rein terror through giant hormone-induced pigs flung from his station that orbited the Earth, as a meteor hoard. The Dib reversed the pigs mutinies after the first launch- however in the process had pulled the great Irken off of the control panel, changing the launch from its original destination to the game-store where the Gaz-Filth had her preordered GS6.  
The university came into view after a long while of walking, and Zim slowed his pace. This paid ‘Skool’ was worse than the Hi Skool and Skool Zim had previously attended. He’d forgotten why he’d signed up, other than wanting to learn what humans thought of the science behind “Soulmates”. Counterfeiting his tuition payment was a great way to say ‘Fuck Your Earthly Customs’ as well.  
He did know that the puny Dib’s father owned the institution, and the Invader normally would feel uncomfortable being so close to the enemy- but as usual humanity proved to be inferior. He slipped in without detection much to the dismay of Dib.  
Sitting down for the first lesson of the day, an elective Zim picked on a whim- “Visual Art”. He rolled his eyes internally, as if his soulmate would magically appear in an art class on earth. She was an Irken- there’s no possible way that she would even be assigned to this planet.  
“She’d be assigned to an actual planet on the roster by the Armada.” Zim thought bitterly.  
He got lost in his thoughts, glaring at the board in front of him. His other university classmates here sat towards the back normally. Those in front sat in the opposing right-hand column, even though they didn’t see through his disguise- they’d found the ‘Green-kid’ weird; rightly so.  
He didn’t even notice a voice calling out until they’d tapped his arm.  
“Pardon me?” They’d asked. 

Zim looked up. 

‘What are the fuckin’ odds.’

It was an immediate connection, Zim was filled with the sudden urge to be as close to her as possible. The urge was battled with his thoughts about humanity, and it became an internal war.  
He began to feel what he assumed was her current mood, and sucked in a breath.  
She was beautiful, and repulsive.  
“What is it Earthling?” He managed to struggle.  
She simply flashed a gorgeous and hideous smile. “I asked, ‘Do you mind if I sit next to you?’.”  
Zim felt himself flush at the sound of her voice, and grit his teeth in annoyance of himself.  
‘Yes.’  
“Not at all, Earth Wor- human. Do you need me to move over?”  
He cursed himself internally as she shook her head and just moved around his seat at the edge and planted herself beside him. He nearly grinned at how close she decided to sit even though the entire row was open- but squared his jaw to prevent it.  
She didn’t question his lack of conversation, but simply produced a unique and ‘cute’ pencil with a cat topper, a ‘watercolor’ paint set, and the required 10 x 11 sketchbook containing ‘watercolor’ paper.  
Zim didn’t like watercolor at all.  
“If you’d like,” she started quietly- and Zim couldn’t prevent his head from snapping to look at her beautiful and horrifying eyes. “I have gloves people specifically use for this medium. You can use them.”  
He felt his chest beat miles per minute, and when he looked into her eyes- all he could see was the vast universe within them.  
“N-no. I’ll be fine.” Was all he could do to get over the lump developing in his throat.  
She grinned at him and giggled, and he lightly gasped at how pleasant the noise sounded.  
The class had begun shortly after, and Zim nearly stopped breathing when the girl next to him whispered while he was struggling with something specific- asking if he’d like help.  
His pride wouldn’t let him, but when she’d taken his hand anyway to help him sketch a specific line, he was putty in her hands. 

Zim gathered his things the quickest he could, and scurried off to his next class without another word to her. But the farther that he got the worse he felt, and once he got to his locker- he was panting slightly. Hundreds of years of military training, and he was panting from walking a short .3 miles. This wasn’t the work of normal daily activity, he guessed. 

The girl he left behind gave a frown and clenched her eyes shut upon feeling the wave of fatigue and sorrow. She bit her lip and walked towards her next class. 

Dib laughed at Zim’s disheveled appearance and mocked him, stating, “What’s got you worked up Zim? Been on earth too long, Alien?”  
Zim leaned against his lockers and gave Dib a look, “No, disgusting dirt-pig- it’s something wrong with my...” he clenched his jaw before finishing and slammed the door to his locker before muttering “Soulmate.” With disdain.  
Gaz looked up from her GS6XL, smashing buttons without looking back down. “Really? What’s up.”  
Zim narrowed his eyes, “Since my Tallest wouldn’t enjoy this conversation I have no choice but to disclose this information to you- as you are closest to a sentient being on this infernal planet.” He felt guilt while saying it, not believing his Soulmate could be lifeless like the rest of this planet.  
He took a breath, and ignoring Dib and his protests about being ignored- turned his back to him to face Gaz as he vented quietly. “It appears as though my imprint or soulmate as you humans primitively use the vile term still, which we Irken have managed to erase from our genetic make-up,” he grimaced as he had basically told the ‘goth’ he was abnormal to Irken Invaders, “-is a human. A human female in my ‘Visual Arts’ class.” He hissed.  
Gaz smirked. “I like her already,” closing her GS6XL, Zim rose an eyebrow at the action- “Who is she.” It wasn’t a question with Gaz but a demand.  
Zim suddenly felt embarrassed and uncomfortable to disclose her name-  
His eyes suddenly widened.  
“Fuck.”  
“You didn’t ask, did you?”  
He produced a groan and banged the back of his head on his locker.  
Dib-Filth puffed out his cheeks, “I don’t like that you and my sister are so casual- but you don’t even talk to me. Not that I want you to!”  
Zim ignored him and rubbed where the bridge of his nose would be.  
“What does Zim do, Earthling Gaz.”  
The short girl leaned up against the locker. “Let’s see where it goes, she might have some other classes with you. What else do you have?”  
The Irken’s contact-wearing eyes unfocused as he tried to remember the names of the classes he learnt as a smeet.  
“Um..”  
He sighed exaggeratedly, before handing her a schedule produced from a robotic arm out of his PAK. To which Dib attempted to point out to other students, to which they stared at Dib and got back to traveling the halls.  
No one noticed Dib fall to the floor and scream ‘WHY?!’.  
Gaz snatched it and read it over, sighing.  
“She probably doesn’t have these, she must be here for the Art Branch of the Institute.”  
The trio heard a bell and those hanging out in the halls made their way to classes.  
Gaz handed it back to him but he put a clawed glove up as a simple ‘Keep it.’  
She pocketed it and shrugged, “Talk to her tomorrow.”  
“What’s your angle here?”  
“Someone to keep you busy with some fuckin, so Dib stops bothering me- and so YOU owe me.”  
Zim flushed and blew a raspberry,  
“That’s... Fair enough.”

So Zim went through the day with a nagging feeling in the back of his PAK that wasn’t his own, and he frowned. And upon the walk home it wasn’t much easier, he felt it stronger than before and suddenly looked up from the floor and saw her back walking in front of him. He tried to remain stoic as ever- thankfully she didn’t seem to notice. Her silky hair bounced and Zim felt the sudden urge to run his hands through it- but he walked slower with his eyes on her.  
She walked with her bag in her arms and into the apartment complex right next to Zim’s base.  
He deadpanned.  
‘What in the fresh teet?’  
He facepalmed audibly, how could she have been so close without him knowing.  
It was the evening by now and Zim dragged his hand across his face before throwing his head back and groaning, walking back to his base and home and slamming the door behind him. Greeted by a sleeping Gir he simply gave a small huff and a hint of a lazy smile, at least something was normal.  
His arm twitched and he gently pulled up his glove, revealing a simple-  
“I hope your day gets better. <3”  
He didn’t even try to hide his grin this time. 

He hadn’t slept, simply relaxed and browsed through various projects. He decided to work on modifying Gir’s tracking system, one he couldn’t rip out but also prevented him from having space for his... cupcakes.  
The invader grumbled and rubbed his face, being reduced to this- accommodating a broken SIR unit, which his Tallest gave him purposefully. He growled, being both frustrated and embarrassed he hadn’t a clue as to his own banishment. In fact, it rather being an execution or elimination- for if it weren’t for him finding Earth, he’d have died out in space once his resources ran out.  
The Irken in his absentminded state, broke a piece of the chip- and froze. Looking down at it through his goggles.  
He swiftly sucker punched it into pieces and sighed, rubbing his head and scratching his wig.  
“Time for Uni, Sir.”  
“You sound nicer today, Computer.”  
“You look awful today.”  
“Fair.”  
He rose up from his place at his workbench and smoothed out his shirt. Looking to the hung up uniform with a set jaw and walking back up to the elevator. Gir was already making Waffles in the kitchen, and handed a grape soda to his master with a high pitched screaming giggle. The invader simply drank from it with a hum of approval and patted the small trash dog.  
“Gir?” Zim turned.  
“Yes sir!” The crimson hue lit up the original teal coloring of the defective (grimace) unit.  
“Commence arrangements to make this place presentable Gir, we may have company over today.” Zim turned back and marched to the door, opening it with a loud creak- and hearing excited screaming of the metal joyful bot before closing it behind him with a snicker.  
He stilled his heart, and breathed out.  
Hopefully he could settle this inner dispute he was having. Perhaps a human imprint wouldn’t be so bad, would it?  
He tried to make an excuse that would sell to the Tallest, to prove his use.  
‘The human proves to be of value for my informational gathering here on Earth.’  
‘I may better blend in with the humans should I have their... companionship.’  
However the more excuses he led himself to believe were true, the more he grew bitter at the idea that yes, he had a human imprint. And it made him furious, he was an Irken- an invader! The least it should’ve been was another Irken.  
Zim was lost in the ideas swimming through his head, so much so he’d ignored his daily glaring contest with Dib in the morning- and took no notice of a girl with eyes downcast, face set into a frown, who walked behind him every morning.  
By the time Zim sat down, almost no one was in the room yet. He’d guessed he must’ve walked quicker than usual, and sighed. He hoped he could talk to his imprint, but it appeared she wasn’t here yet.  
“Excuse me,” a voice called and the Grand Invader jumped.  
Looking up quickly he knew it was her, and she shuffled in place. “I can’t help but feel as though your mood lately is my fault.” She started.  
Zim’s face fell.  
‘Shit.’  
But he couldn’t find himself able to speak.  
“I can sit somewhere else, I don’t want to burden you.”  
‘Don’t.’  
“It’s just... usually I think Soulmates would be happy to see each other for the first time and I don’t think you are.”  
‘Say something you jerk.’  
She gave a small weak smile and began to turn away.  
Zim forced himself to speak, and a strangled cough came out of his throat. Followed by a couple of words in the Irken language. He smacked his palm over his face, and let his head fall to the desk in a flood of embarrassment.  
The girl didn’t move, but she looked down at the seat the socially impaired boy sat in and felt his embarrassment hit her like a tsunami. She then gave a grin, not that he saw- and moved to sit beside him. It helped he didn’t have any bags for her to trip over the thin walkway.  
Zim looked up and expected her gone with a frown, only to turn his head to the left and gasp. She stared back at him, realizing she was caught and blushing.  
“Sorry! You’re... I like how you look. I couldn’t help it, for-“ she gestured to herself, “Obvious reasons.”  
He relaxed and huffed a small laugh. Before setting his jaw and looking at her with eyes narrowed in determination. She tilted her head but didn’t move, Zim was frightened and fascinated she could understand what he was trying to say without needing him to say it. He thought of how this certain bond would make for better infiltration missions, to fall under the guise of a couple- plus having the connection which would tell your partner whether there was immediate danger, it would be genius.  
He looked at her full of wonder of what the Armada could be should Irken invade in pairs, but frowned- ‘It’s a defect.’  
He sighed, resting his cheek in his palm before remembering his question with a small ‘Oh.’  
“Human,”  
“(Y/N), but if you feel comfortable calling me by species I’m fine with that too- do you mind if I ask your name?” She spoke quietly as though not to spook him.  
He tapped his claws on the desk and looked at her curiously.  
“Not many interrupt me, the Great Zim.”  
‘You douche, that’s so rude.’  
He cursed inwardly.  
But she simply giggled and nodded,  
“I’m sorry, that was a little rude of me. Your names lovely.” at this the awkward Irken scratched his wig, wondering if his antennae were muffled and if he’d heard right.  
“H-human... (Y/N), would you be so kind as to accompany me; Zim, to my base- home, later this evening when the Uni ends?” Zim blurted out, better to get it over with than sit here and stare at the girl. (Y/N) had a surprised look on her face that turned into a wide set grin, before giving a solid ‘Yes!’. The Invader let a grin grace his face before he could try stopping it and the girl looked curiously at his teeth, the sharp smile not alarming her but definitely catching her eye. Zim covered his face with his palm, turning back to the board.  
“I like your smile, Zim.” (Y/N) said quietly, as people began to fill the room. The extraterrestrial looked at her with wide, childlike wonder- to find she’d already flipped to her work and began to continue on her watercolor. He let a small goofy grin overtake him and sighed contently, before cringing at the watercolor he needed to do. 

The walk out of the Visual Arts room was... pleasant. Talking over about meeting at the streetlamp just outside and across the street from the main doors to the campus, Zim had waited until all the other humans had left before walking to the door and opening it for (Y/N). She walked through and gave him a timid smile, before walking in the opposite direction of his lockers and next class.  
‘Damn, and here I was hoping.’ He clicked his tongue and walked over to the lockers, not that he needed anything- but it was a nice cover to stall before the next bell. Very human.  
“You look happy.”  
Zim turned to see Gaz and Dib-Worm walking over. Dib gave a skeptical look as always.  
“What are you planning now, Zim? Huh?”  
But Zim’s heart was still beating a mile a minute; and he ignored the taunts of the sad Earth boy.  
Turning to an aloof Gaz, he stated-  
“She’s coming over today.”  
“Great don’t be a dickhead.”  
Zim let out a small ‘ew’ at the misunderstood metaphor but nodded all the same. That was the end of the conversation, Gaz gave them enough of her time for the week. The rest of Zim’s day went as usual, except he noticed that (Y/N) waved in between classes while she walked in opposing directions to him. He liked that. She perked up every time they made eye contact before he would break it and remind himself that his mission here wasn’t to ogle the human. But that didn’t stop him from waving back with a shy smile.  
The Irken waited at the streetlamp they’d said they’d meet with an erratic heart,  
Maybe this banishment wouldn’t be so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you so much for reading, I wasn’t originally going to post this as it wasn’t edited. It also was my original Idea for “My Life on Earth” that I abandoned. I thought I’d just post it as a One-Shot instead <33


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